Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

Bill – Proof of payment

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

YUMMRAJ & Lady YUMMRAJ decided to visit Indian accent after many years on occasion of their Anniversary. Since booking queues r common in this small boutique restaurant, we had to book much in advance.

A section of the dining hall

Once there, we realized that seldom have we come across such Hands on Chefs in India who assist in orders, suggest orders based on taste direction, help in pairing, serve the food at times & also constantly go back to Kitchen (I guess to supervise / taste, maybe to cook as well) & constantly interacting with guests one dish after another , consistently. We had a wonderful chat with him as a normal foodie customer & that in itself was also an experience. Meet Manish Mehrotra, the Chef of Indian Accent, a culinary Magician.

Soft shelled crab, flame roasted coconut

As always YUMMRAJ walked into the restaurant like a normal guest, ordered food, waited for it to arrive, ate it, paid for it & left. The only additional activity that happened was a thoroughly enjoyable & memorable chat with Manish – not coz he knew YUMMRAJ from b4 but coz he habitually goes to every table & does everything I described in the previous paragraph.

the bar & lounge area

The restaurant is located in a boutique Hotel, The Manor in Friend’s colony. The restaurant has a small lounge with sofas & a bar & a mid sized dining Hall with 8 tables.

Chef’s table

It also had a nice small, special room for Chef’s table with a capacity of 9 persons. The Chef’s table is available only on pre booking & over a 3 hour period the Chef prepares food & also tells the story of the food.

A peep into the room with Chef’s table.

The menu card was a 2 pager & it had no ‘usual’ dish. It had a variety of ingredients used both in vegetarian & non vegetarian options. Making choices r hardly as difficult as they were here. Manish happily helped on quite a few occasions we sought help.
Indian classical instrumental music played softly – it was enjoyable but non intrusive.

Another view of the dining hall

The staff members were very well trained in terms of everything.

Food rocked. Period.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

As we sat & started deciding on the menu, we were served complimentary ‘bite size’ Blue cheese naan that was piping hot, straight out of the oven. This Amuse Bouche was a Brilliant thought & had outstanding execution.

Blue cheese naan

For the uninitiated, an amuse-bouche is a single, bite-sized starter. Difference from appetizers is that amuse bouche is not ordered from a menu by patrons, but served for free according to the chef’s selection. The idea is to prepare the guest for the meal and also to offer a glimpse into the chef’s approach to the art of cuisine. The term is French, literally translated to “mouth amuser”.

Blue cheese is a cheese that is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold. The characteristic flavor of blue cheeses tends to be sharp and salty. The smell of this food is due both to the mold and to types of bacteria encouraged to grow on the cheese. This is something that u might just hate on the 1st day but the taste grows on u. It is also one of those food items that u can either love or hate.

Post that came Cauliflower and saffron shorba – It was a thick & creamy shorba (soup) that strongly conveyed the flavours of both cauliflower and saffron. The ingredients peacefully coexisted without trying to overpower each other, but made their individual presence felt at every occassion. Excellent. Rate it 4.75/5

Cauliflower and saffron shorba

For drink we ordered Shikanji & it was as perfect as it cud get. There were no twists on this one, like most other items in this restaurant. It was very good & hence I rate it 4/5.

Shikanji

The other drink was a cocktail Marigold, made from spice tree countrieu (a kind of liqueur), orange and more. As a whole it was Tangy & excellent. Great for the daytime during winters & of course for the summer evenings.There were layers in the drink that we wud keep guessing thruout our drink.Rate it 4.5/5.

Shikanji on the left & a drink called marigold on the right

Our first starter was Duck khurchan cornetto, duck liver butter with chilly chutney. It was a set of 4 in-house made cornetto that had the perfect texture, a tad less than perfectly crispy. Inside the cornetto was duck meat & duck liver butter – Oh what an experience to bite into something that wud just burst inside the mouth. The beauty of the dish was that the taste & flavors of duck were intact & at the same time the mix of masalas made their presence felt. Rate this dish 4.75/5

Duck khurchan cornetto

The second dish we ordered was Foie gras stuffed galawat with strawberry green chilly chutney.

For the uninitiated, Foie gras is a food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened. Natural method – Geese eat a lot before they fly long distances in the winter & that is why their lovers fatten. This is used by them as a storehouse while fyling for days over water. Man made method – Geese is just overfed by homo sapiens so that their liver fattens.

While I read this description of the dish on the menu card, I forgot the description of the dish by the time the food landed on the table. What we saw was a piece of foie gras atop a galawat. Little did I expect that a bite into the kabab wud end up in a burst of softness in the mouth, caused by foie gras. The galawat had all of its fine flavors intact in addition to its perfect taste & the new dimension thrown in by the foie gras. Rate this dish 4.75/5

galawat foie gras

Till this time we were having a dream run.

Next dish that came was Tandoori bacon prawns topped with wasabi malai cream. Large prawns wrapped with fine bacon. Very seldom does one get such good prawns in Delhi cooked to such perfection. Very soft inspite of the size. The combo of prawn & bacon was of course brilliant & they complemented each other really well. Loved this dish & rate it 4/5.

Tandoori bacon prawns topped with wasabi malai cream

Post this we were served a small portion of Soft shelled crab, flame roasted coconut, tomato pickle chutney. My mistake was that I did not change taste after the robust tandoori bacon prawns. The soft shelled crab tasted very bland. It was only after few bites that the taste buds started appreciating this dish but by that time it was quite late – the dish was over. Thin strips of coconut were lovely. Once again, a very good dish & I rate it 4/5.

Soft shelled crab, flame roasted coconut

As we finished our long list of starters, it was time to wait for the main course. As we waited, we were served a small ‘ice stick’ inside a miniature pressure cooker. What an idea & what impact it had on us. We started talking about things related to this & Lady YUMMRAJ started recounting her childhood memories of how she had a small miniature & stories revolving around it.

‘ice stick’ inside a miniature pressure cooker

For main course we had Rice crusted John Dory moilee, market greens, pine nut poriyal. This rice crusted was served atop a lump of market greens & was garnished with caviar. Once it was placed on the table, Chef poured the poriyal at the base of the plate.

Rice crusted John Dory moilee

The baked / grilled John Dory (fish) that we were used to, is usually pretty juicy & flaky. The fish served at Indian Accent was not that flaky & less juicy than Grilled due to the fact that it was coated – as explained by the Chef. The fish was pretty neutral & very enjoyable just as it is & also with the gravy.

Rice crusted John Dory moilee topped with caviar

The saag was outstanding & so was the poriyal. Cud feel the full pine nuts in the gravy. The gravy was thick, creamy, very tasty & we just Loved it. Rate it 4.25/5

Rice crusted John Dory moilee

For dessert we ordered ‘Warm dodha burfi treacle tart, homemade vanilla bean ice cream’ as recommended by the waiting staff.
The tart was at the base & atop it was the scoop of ice cream. On top of the ice cream was placed a thin slice of real vanilla bean.

The ice cream was full of black dots & those were nothing other than the vanilla paste. Excellent ice cream as it is.

The tart had the perfect outer cover – buttery & crunchy but a bit moist. The filling was just awesome – Dhodha mix (made in-house) baked. While it reminded of Dhodha, it was surely a different & a very good version of the original sweet. I rate this dish 4.5/5.

We sensed a bit more space in the tummy & asked for a second dessert. This time it was ‘Old monk’ rum ball with 70% valrhona chocolate (A French Luxury chocolate brand) sauce. The Old Monk Rum (that’s where Indian accent comes in this otherwise European dessert) was brought in a container, poured on the rum ball & set on fire. The Rum ball was up on flames for quite some time & then we got to taste.

‘Old monk’ rum ball with 70% valrhona chocolate sauce

Woops. What a rum ball, what intensity of taste, robust, flavors of chocolate , perfect texture within, perefct balance of sweet & bitter & an amazing liquid chocolate. Needless to say Old Monk made its presence felt in every bite. Rate this dish 4.75/5

As we waited for the bill to come, there came another surprise. Charpoy of childhood memories – Churan, aam papad, anardana goli, chikki placed in small bowls atop a miniature charpoy. While the tastes of each of these items were as good as it cud get, the joy was the way it was served & the also the tickling of memories. That whole experience & the conversations it sprung up was just beyond rating. After a lot of thinking about how I cud put a number to this, I rate this 4.5/5

Charpoy of childhood memories

Overall rating of food at Indian accent averages out to 4.5/5

Do u think I will ever go back here? Of course YES. Many more times I guess.

Coz earlier I used to cover the amount as people used to have lot of moral questions – like how can u spend so much on a dinner / blah blah. However in teh newer reviews I have started putting real receipts.